Saturday, 27 April 2013

Watch the following video by Sir Ken Robinson where he makes an entertaining and profoundly moving case for creating an education system that nurtures (rather than undermines) creativity.I know it's a bit long but before you start complaining, let me tell you why you should listen to him:

"Creativity expert Sir Ken Robinson challenges the way we're educating children. He champions a radical rethink of school systems, to
cultivate creativity and acknowledge multiple types of intelligence."

If I have convinced you, watch the conference and write a short summary here (100-120 words) and also share your feelings about it. Password: aple1It would be great if you could have it by Monday 29th before the listening test next Tuesday; otherwise Thursday 2nd will be the final deadline.

Friday, 26 April 2013

Students in APLE 1 spent yesterday's morning interviewing tourists in Madrid, which gave them the opportunity to practice their English in a real context. I think they really enjoyed the experience. Now it's time to share the results of their interviews in class.

Thanks to Olga and Emir for coming with us!

You can present your interviews in group to the rest of the class, but make sure everyone comments on two different interviews. You can tell us what the tourists told you, show us some videos, share some anecdotes...Get everything ready by next Tuesday, please...

Saturday, 20 April 2013

1.
Summarize the plot in a few sentences.
2.
Mention the setting: the place and time of the plot.
3. Say something about
the main characters.
4. Say something about the content.

Conclusion:

1. Comment on the book.
2.
Let others know whether or not you liked the book.
3. Why do you like it? Why don't you like it?
4. Is the author's style good or bad, is the book interesting or boring etc.
5. Do you want to recommend the book/film?

Useful Expressions:

Title, Author: The book is written by ...

Setting: The action takes place in ... (setting)

The story takes place in...

Characters and Plot

The main characters are ...
The story is about ....
The novel tells the story of ...
In the course of the novel the action develops dramatically.
The novel begins with...
The novel has an unexpected ending.
The end of ... is ...

Reaction

I am impressed by
I highly recommend the book because...

I liked/didn't like the novel because..

I think ....
The book is terribly / beautifully written
What surprised me is ...
What I liked is...
What I didn't like is...

Tuesday, 16 April 2013

It's time to start devising your news programme. In groups you will have to decide the news you'll be dealing with in your programmes and how to organize it. The news should be around 5 minute long and you can include short video clips or images to support the information.

You'll be presenting your news programme in class but I also need a video recording of your programme or an audio file with the news itself.

Below you have several sites which can help you with the project. Please, do not think in Spanish and then translate into English and don't use words you don't understand or can't even pronounce.

Linkers and connectors are a great way of improving your English and your wiritng skills. Why?
Because we use them to express relationships between ideas and to
combine sentences.

Here you have a list of them grouped according to what they express and with their Spanish translation.
In this page you'll find all the practice necessary to master connectors in written English. Go through the Grammar exercises, the Translations exercises and the Rephrasing exercises.

Now try the wheel game to practise connectors to improve your writing skills.

Below you have another shorter list with the basic connectors if you wish to print.

Tuesday, 9 April 2013

We are going to start working on improving pronunciation through a series of posts which include some tips, some practice on phonetics , some posts about homophones and some videos to help you sound a bit better in English.

Let's start with this video where you're given advice on what makes a speaker sound as a native speaker:

Now let's try to do some practice by reading out some tongue twisters. Although most of them make no sense at all, they can definetely help you improve your pronunciation skills. There are some examples below:

Friday, 5 April 2013

Students, this is the first assignment of the final term and at this point I needn't tell you how important it is to carry out all the tasks suggested. This week I think the subject may be quite interesting for you. Notice this assignment has two different parts. Good luck and enjoy it!

Please watch the full video and then send me a voicemail with your thoughts and answers to the questions below:

1.- What is coding about?

2.- What qualities do you need to be able to code?

3.- Why is learning to code so important and exciting? When should you start learning?

4.- Famous programmers tell us about their experience. Comment on three of them.

7.- What is their job like? What about those cool working spaces?

8.- What are the benefits of learning to code?

9.- What is coding compared to?

10.- Would you be interested in learning to code if a class were offered in school?

Now listen to the following extract and fill in the blanks. Send me a screenshot with your results.